Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Do you have a team listening to what is being said about your company on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and discussion forums?...

It’s very likely a company will engage in the customer service scenario described above, according to the third edition of the Social Customer Engagement Index, a study conducted by Social Media Today and sponsored by SAP. Chances are growing that customers will use a channel other than a phone call or in-person and instead opt for a social media channel for service, whether Twitter, an online forum, a Web site or a social networking site such as Facebook. SocialCRM thought leader Paul Greenberg of the 56 Group, who wrote the foreword to this study report, describes “a company like me,” as how consumers engage with companies through commonalities – such as social engagement channels.

Key Findings

Adoption of social media as a channel for serving and engaging with customers is accelerating, and it looks like there’s no turning back. Over a third of respondents (34%) said their company has gathered two-plus years of experience using social media tools for customer service, compared with 20.3% in 2011. Even more dramatic is the increase in the percentage of customer inquiries being addressed over social channels. The number of companies handling greater than 25% of customer service inquiries via social media doubled this year, growing to 18% from 9% last year. The number of companies handling fewer than 5% of customer inquiries over social channels decreased to 41%, down from 56%....

[if you're not serving your customers and engaging with themthrough social media, your competitors soon will be according to the research ~ Jeff]